Stephen Elop hints at Nokia Windows 8 tablets

By Tom Warren, on 2nd Nov 11 5:50 pm with 31 Comments

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has hinted that the company may be interested in Windows 8 tablets.

Elop revealed his feelings during an interview with Bloomberg this week. Nokia plans to enter the U.S. smartphone market in early 2012 with a significant marketing effort. “Our intention is to come back in the United States and grow significant share in this market,” Elop said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. “Our plans are to be very competitive and to go head-on with the appropriate devices at the appropriate price points,” Elop said. “We know we need to get volume moving and we need from that to develop economies of scale. And then as we do more and more differentiation, we expand gross margin.”

Elop also talked briefly about Microsoft’s Windows 8 plans. “There’s a new tablet opportunity coming,” he said. “We see the opportunity. Unquestionably, that will change the dynamics” of the tablet market, he added. Nokia is rumored to be preparing its own tablet offerings. Reports earlier this year suggested that the Finnish handset maker may not opt for Microsoft’s software. However, Microsoft recently revealed its Windows 8 operating system which includes a Windows Phone interface, one that would attract customers of Nokia’s Lumia products. Microsoft is expected to ship a beta version of Windows 8 at CES in January which will include further enhancements to the new Metro style interface.

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  • Anonymous

    More unibody polycarbonate!

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Indeed, I love the feel of the Lumia. It’s truly a beauty in my hand.

    • Anonymous

      Especially the curves…

    • OMG55

      How about passing it over to my hand so I can see how it feels…..I dying to have one of these in the US

    • Guest

      Think they’ll crack like almost all Macs?

  • samanaslt

    Like a boss

  • Windows Fan

    Price it right and I will buy. Also differentiate yourself from everyone else somehow. I don’t want an iPad lookalike

    • Anonymous

      Does the Lumia 800 look like the iPhone?  I don’t think you need to worry about Nokia not differentiating.

    • http://twitter.com/Stephen_Floyd Stephen Floyd

      I understand what you’re saying but if there was a tablet that looked and felt just like the iPad, but had good specs inside and ran Windows 8, I would buy it in a heart-beat. I mean the build quality of the ipad is great, the reason I would never buy one is because it runs the stale old OS that has been running on ipod touchs and iphones for the lst 5 years… It doesn’t do anything more or different than what a phone that fits in my pocket does.

  • http://twitter.com/pierrerv Pierre Venescar

    imagine a nokia tablet looking like the Lumia 800 running windows 8!!!???!!! huh? would have been sweet to carry around

    • Anonymous

      Nokia definitely has a winner in that design.  They should try to capitalize on it as quick as possible.  Release a 4+ inch version phone and a ~10 inch tablet.  

    • J A

      That will certainly be sweet. They should be working on the hardware already to avoid lack lustre hardware features when the OS lands.

  • Anonymous

    A Nokia PMP with Zune and X-Box intergration would be sweet.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah I feel Microsoft will have to give in on this eventually and license a non-phone version of the Windows Phone OS that still has access to the same marketplace for apps and such.  There is no risk on MS part as the OEM’s would be taking the risk.

    • Tom

      “Windows Phone Phoneless Edition?”

    • Anonymous

      They should have called it Windows Mobile 7. They still can still keep the branding as WP7, but underneat call it WM7 so it can be used for a PMP.

    • Anonymous

      MS isn’t always great at branding but I hope they come up with something better than that.  Probably just go with Zune since that’s what we are talking about here.

    • BigChiefSmokem

      You’re doing it wrong…

      “Microsoft Windows Phone Series Marketplace Matrix Premium HD OEM Phoneless Edition 2012 ”

      Codename “Faygo”

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      I know my ZuneHD will die one day ( I mean I hope it doesn’t!).  I’d love to have a nice alternative PMP to go to that has Zune on it without having to use my phone for it.

  • Anonymous

    Samsung, HTC & Nokia Windows 8 tablets could really break the iPad dominance.

    • J A

      “Could”??!! They most certainly will and everyone including Apple knows it already!!

    • http://twitter.com/LAHC_EOPS LAHC EOPS

      Agreed. Ipads are great, but what the world really needs/wants is a tablet form, full-powered computer.

    • Guest

      50 million people so far, and double that in a year at the current growth rate, appear to disagree with you.

    • Anonymous

      50 million vs almost a billion windows users……not a chance. the ipad is popular because the iPhone and iPod touch was popular, well if there is such a thing as brand recognition, then people know Microsoft’s name. Every single person that bought an ipad has a PC (and only about 5 million are macs) because right now the ipad is a secondary device, a windows tablet IS a PC, replacing the laptop/desktop, and making the ipad an unnecessary second purchase.

      Besides there was a poll that said over 40% of people would like to buy a windows tablet, with only 20% at ipads and a super low 5% for android.

    • Guest

      With what content?

  • http://twitter.com/iMarkG84 Mark Green

    I would love to see what Nokia could bring to the tablet market… 2012/13 could well be Nokia&Microsofts years…exciting times ahead.

  • Guest

    I said a while back that MS really needed a new tablet partner and that Nokia was potential a great fit for that. So I’m encouraged by these statements. If anybody can put out a well designed product at a competitive price point it’s Nokia. And in the US, I think a strong Nokia W8 tablet could help them rebuild their overall brand image here and thereby help their phone chances as well.

    Get on it, Elop. And don’t a year to do it.

  • Anonymous

    Great build phones tablets and laptops I will be all over that!

  • Anonymous

    I cant wait to see a windows 8  tablet by Samsung with SAMOLED+ and most very thin, thinner than the next iPad

  • Frylockns86

    I’d buy one. :)

  • rani yako

    nice step